


Thicker Than Water

by Raiven_Raine, Ravenous77



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Alternate Canon, Anti-Hero, Anti-Heroes, Bigotry & Prejudice, Bromance, Canon Related, Canon-Typical Violence, Epic Friendship, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Gen, M/M, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, alternate POV, preconcieved notions, raider headcanon, raiders (fallout) - Freeform, unsung heroes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-02
Updated: 2016-09-02
Packaged: 2018-08-12 13:55:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7937266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raiven_Raine/pseuds/Raiven_Raine, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ravenous77/pseuds/Ravenous77
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two young raiders out on their rite of passage travel to the Commonwealth and unwittingly stumble upon a woman frozen in a vault...</p><p>Along their travels, they inadvertently save some Minutemen, join the Brotherhood of Steel, uncover a devastating plot, unite their broken raider bands and save the Commonwealth as unsung heroes.</p><div class="center">
  <p> - - - - - - - </p>
</div>
            </blockquote>





	Thicker Than Water

**Author's Note:**

> These raiders come from a big city university (Yale, to be precise). They are more well spoken and educated than those found in the Commonwealth, which leads to a lot of preconceived notions and misconceptions as they travel since they don't really refer to themselves as 'raiders' but it's a label placed on them by others.
> 
> Their band prides itself on unity, as they were one of the first post-war groups of people to gather and try to make a decent society. 
> 
> And, after a while, there was discourse within the society. They split up roughly a hundred years ago and Commonwealth raiders, as we know them, were formed from two of the broken factions.
> 
> \- - - - - - - 
> 
>   
> 

  
  
  


**_\- - - Nunquam Solus - - -_ **

**\- - - Never Alone - - -**

### 

  
  


**Prologue**

“There’s nothing out here.” Ronan amused himself by writing a curse word on the dry crusted earth as he relieved himself.

Crouched next to a large dead tree, Venin continued to ignore his companion’s complaints as he picked up a small rad-bleached bone and examined it more closely. As of two weeks ago, the complaining had become background noise like a terrible song played on repeat. As soon as they had left the ruins of New Haven and the familiarity of big city buildings faded into open countryside, Ronan immediately started to gripe.

Ro adjusted his pants and kicked a rock down the hill they stood on. “Dirt. Dead trees. More dirt. I can see for miles all around and you know what I see?”

“Dirt?” Ven mumbled as he put the bone in his jacket and started rooting around for more. 

_“Nothing!”_ Ronan said as he spread his arms out to encompass the endless expanse of land. “Why did we come out here, again?”

“Less people means more shine…” Ven absently said. Again. Probably about the tenth time he had to explain the chosen destination. 

“Great. Guess we’ll be in luck if we wanna bring back some rocks, bloaties or molerats.” Ronan rolled his eyes, “That’s another thing. _Molerats._ I’m glad we don’t have those back home. And the damned mosquitoes! Those sure are fun. The animals out here are just fantastic.” His words dripped with sarcasm. “Mirelurks, mongrels... And what the hell is _that_ thing?”

Ven sighed as he glanced over to what Ro was pointing his pistol at. His eyes widened and he stood slowly, “That… Is a Yao Guai…”

The thing was off a ways gnawing on the remainder of an old carcass, crunching bones between its massive jaws loud enough for the boys to hear. 

“We need to go.” Venin took a step back as he drew his weapon.

“Shit, I could take it…” Ronan cocked his pistol.

“Take it to dinner, maybe… Your thick skull as the main course.” Ven sighed then said again, “We need to go.”

Suddenly the beast raised its nose to the air and started sniffing intently. _The boys stood right upwind._

The Yao Guai growled and started a slow lope toward them.

“And now more running.” Ven took one more step back then turned and burst into a dead run.  
  


**\- - - - - - - - - - - -**

Ronan broke off a large stick from the tree branch he sat on. “How long until it gets bored?” He threw the stick at the circling beast below them and it growled.

“It’ll never lose interest if you keep taunting it!” Venin snatched another stick from Ro and glared. 

“Let me shoot it.” He reached for his pistol.

“I think you’ve wasted enough ammo.” His companion was a good shot, but the Yao Guai’s thick skull and hide shook off every bullet so far.

“I got this…” 

Venin stared at him. “Sure, why not. You’ll get him with the next one. All the others weakened his bone structure considerably and one more ought to take him down.” 

“Right.” Ro took aim.

“I was being facetious!” Ven grabbed him by the wrist and the stick he was holding fell from his lap… Landing right in the beast’s face as it looked up. 

The Yao Guai snarled and got up on two legs, using its massive front paws to shove against the tree violently. 

The tree shook as the animal heaved against it over and over again. Then the branch the boys were sitting on suddenly cracked and fell out from under them. 

Ronan had caught himself on another branch and missed catching his friend by inches as he fell. “Ven! No!”

Venin dropped to the ground next to the Yao Guai and he quickly rolled to his feet to run as the animal turned on him. 

Without any hesitation, Ronan pulled his knife and jumped down right onto the beast’s back. He grabbed a fistful of mangey fur in one hand and started stabbing at anything he could with his steel as the animal roared and started to thrash around.

“Run, Ven!” 

Scared for his friend, Venin froze in place. He pulled steel, then hesitated… What could he do but watch?

“Fucking _run!”_ Ronan shouted again as the Yao Guai reared up and dumped him off to land on his back in the dirt.

 _“NO!”_ Ven put a hand out and stepped forward as the beast rounded on his friend while he tried to scramble to his feet.

The animal lunged with his jaws open wide to crush Ronan’s head then it let out a sudden growl that abruptly ended as it fell hard against him. 

Vennin felt sick. “Ro!” He pushed his body to unfreeze from the spot and took a couple of hesitant steps, then rushed to the unmoving beast. 

“Ro…?” Ven held his knife tightly as he moved closer and his eyes widened as he saw blood pooling around the Yao Guai. He could see Ronan underneath the thing. He wasn’t moving. Venin started to panic and he fought to remain as calm as he could. 

A small movement urged Ven forward. “Are you okay?”

“Fucking fantastic… Thought I'd take a nap under this beautiful Yo-skin rug...” 

Ro’s sarcastic words, though slightly labored, gave Venin a sigh of relief. He moved to the other side and found him under the Yao Guai at an awkward angle… His forearm halfway down the animal’s throat. Ven heaved the animal to the side enough for his friend to squirm out from under it, pulling his bloody arm and weapon from the thing’s toothy maw. 

Ronan sat in the dirt and held the knife up in his blood covered fist. He laughed. 

“What is wrong with you?!” Ven stared incredulously as he started to examine Ro's body for wounds.

“Told ya I could take him.” He continued to laugh like a lunatic.  
  


### 

Fat black buzzards watched intently as Venin cautiously stepped over long-dead bodies splayed out over the hill, half buried in countless decades worth of dirt and debris. Not even bodies anymore… Skeletons. Old and nearly dust, he counted three ragged sunbleached forms as he passed carefully through a busted up opening in the chain link fence. He stumbled over a skull still bearing a guard’s helm. Ven gazed at the numbers at the brim of the helmet, trying to read the chipped sun-yellow paint.

A grinning skull suddenly appeared inches away from Venin’s nose. 

“All this walkin’ is killin’ me!” Ronan shouted with a great deal of irritation in Venin’s ear as he clicked the skull puppet’s teeth together hard enough to knock two cracked molars out. 

The double scare sent Venin tumbling back and he tripped over Ronan’s foot, landing in the dirt with a loud _oof_. 

Laughing, Ronan tossed the desiccated skull onto Venin’s chest. “Why don’t you put that one on your shelf, little pack rat?” 

“Not _human_ skulls, that’s just absurd!” Venin pushed the rad-stripped object onto the ground before carefully picking himself up. 

“I’m not that one that just _had to have_ a pair of molerat teeth. _That’s_ weird.” Ronan commented while searching through a nearby cooler. “Or that bit of cockrapiece--”

“Carapace.” Venin absently corrected as he glanced around the small fenced in area, finding nothing particularly interesting. He ignored Ro, which had taken years of practice to master, while the boy continued to list several odds and ends Ven had been collecting on their long trek. 

Venin used the toe of his boot to flip over a chunk of busted up tin and sighed to himself. Dirty coolers and some trashed trailers. This place held nothing of real value. Waste of time. Ven kicked a can onto a flat section of dirt over a small hill and it clanked off the spot with a strange sound, revealing a slightly scratched shimmer of grey metal. 

He knelt down at the side of the little hill and began moving away dirt, finding more shine underneath. Excited about finally finding something worthwhile, he began to rapidly uncover more of it like a dog unearthing a long lost bone. He paused at the sight of yellow paint, but soon continued, now transfixed with knowing what the dried sun-color spelled out. 

“Uh, Ro? I think we might’ve found a vault.” Venin sat back on his heels as he read a partially uncovered number 1. Ronan strolled over, casually munching on fistfuls of smashed chip crumbs from a bag that had been sitting out for probably a century.

“Ya think?” Ro said between loud crunching mouthfuls. 

Venin wrinkled his nose up at him, “You’re absolutely revolting.”

“What? I didn’t have lunch.” He tilted his head back and dumped the remainder of the crumbs into his mouth.

Ven shook his head as he stood. “Alright, but don’t expect me to help you when Hell decides to throw a party in your bowels.” He turned away and glanced around the patch of dirt and metal. 

“What do you think opens it?”

“Maybe just knock...” Finished eating his bag of dust, Ronan tossed the balled-up trash over his shoulder and wiped his hands off on his torn black pants. “I’ll go check the coolers for a doorbell.” Ro wandered towards the nearest cooler in search for another fossilized snack. 

“How you’re still alive never ceases to amaze me...” Venin gave an eye roll while watching Ro consume more chips with complete disregard for the working state of his internal organs. Ven turned his attention from the ravenous idiot and his foot came down in front of him… and the ground fell away. He yelped as his heart lurched into his throat and his hands clawed at the air around him in a blind panic. Suddenly, his chest hit hard against the other side of the gap, one leg swallowed by the darkness of a cold abyss below. His other foot followed suit, sliding down off the ledge among a waterfall of dirt and rocks. 

_“Shit!”_ The weight of his legs began dragging him down and he tore at the dirt beneath his gloves frantically. 

“Fuck!” Ro dropped his newest fried distraction as he rushed over in a blink and clutched a fist tightly around the back collar Ven’s jacket. Ronan jerked him out of the gaping metal maw and drug him back, dropping him down in the dirt. Ronan planted his hands on his knees and bent over for a moment, then suddenly smirked as he gave one of his signature asinine comments, “Maybe next time you decide to go rope sliding you’ll actually bring the rope.” 

“Funny...” Standing on shaking legs, Ven gave him a small shove, but couldn’t keep the smile off his face. Ronan could make any near-death experience… _wonderful._ Like salt on a wound. 

“Think there’s any shine down there?” Ronan carelessly stepped to the gap and peered into the pitch-black void below. His sense of self-preservation was non-existent. 

“Probably something worth more than the trash up here.” Venin walked away from the metal circle towards Ro’s bags, legs still trembling from subsiding adrenaline. He sifted through the pack carefully… Ronan’s bags were always a complete mess inside and all too often Ven would find an uncapped needle or bit of broken junk _the hard way._

Ven wasn’t very keen on going back into the elevator shaft, but the desire to bring home something exceptional that would leave the others in awe was slightly stronger than his fear. And then there was Ronan. Ro gave Venin a sense of comfort. If he slipped, Ronan would catch him. _He had always been there to catch him when he fell._

He pulled out a miner’s hat and a knotted up mess of rope, sighing pointedly at the state of the cordage as he worked to unknot it.

While Ven fidgeted with the finicky light on top of his cap, trying to keep it on instead of flickering like a spastic neon sign, Ronan tied the rope off to a nearby tree and yanked a few times. Venin didn’t question Ro’s actions when it came to these things, since most of the time they kept him among the living and, over the course of a couple decades, he had grown rather partial to being alive.

Although, it was always Ronan's impulsive nature that landed them in many situations that nearly got them killed. His companion was a walking paradox.

Ro slapped Venin’s hands away from the headlight and turned it on with a well placed smack. “Sometimes ya just gotta show it some tough love.”

“That was unnecessary,” Venin complained as he readjusted the cap.

Ronan kicked a stone into the four foot wide gap over the vault elevator shaft, counting each heartbeat before the echo of stone hitting against metal greeted his ears… From very, _very_ far below. The ridiculous height didn’t even make Ro hesitate before he started off down the rope. 

“Get your glowing ass down here, it’s darker than the inside of a molerat’s head in this damn hole.” He laughed at his own cleverness, “Get it? Cuz they’re not very bright!” 

“Yes, I get it.” Ven sighed before following Ronan down the rope, lighting the way with the headlamp. As they descended, Venin’s inner merchant changed his scientific curiosity into questioning how much the things at the bottom of the darkness were worth. 

Once they reached the bottom, the dusty light on Ven’s head flickered out. As Ronan walked past, he nonchalantly smacked it, light once again cutting through the darkness ahead. 

“Tough love…” Ro chuckled over his shoulder as he explored nearby.

“No wonder it’s busted to begin with…” Venin mumbled as he casually explored the large empty space and found a standing light near a corner. Attempting to find a switch or something to turn the thing on, Ven ran his hands over the cold metal near the large bulbs. Ronan wandered off to rummage around, probably for any more barely-edible things he could get his hands on. 

“How do you suppose--” The darkness surrounding Ven abruptly turned into a flood of painful bright light that punched him right in the face. 

“Gah! What the--” Venin clutched his face and reeled backwards from the bright lights, “Crap on crackers!” He stumbled and bumped into the light, causing it to teeter. 

Laughing like an idiot, Ronan stood over Ven and caught the floodlight. “Hey,” Ro set the lamp upright, “found the lights.” 

More dumb laughter. 

“I noticed…” Ven rubbed his palms against his eyes to try and wipe away the spots burned into his retinas. “As soon as I can see... you’re dead.” 

Ven slowly opened one eye, then the other to see Ronan gaping at a rather large something. His gaze followed Ro’s right up the wall to a large vault door. 

“Bet there’s a lotta shine in there…” Right as the words came out of Venin’s mouth, Ro dashed towards a slight gap in the large circular opening without any further hesitation.

Ven put a hand out after him, “Wait! Ro! Don’t just--” With a sigh, he dropped his arm and reluctantly followed. 

Venin half fell and half ran out onto a long metal catwalk after Ronan, who was already making a mess of the place. 

“Hold up!” Ven’s voice echoed through the large open corridor. He timidly looked around before catching up with Ro, reaching out a hand to touch his shoulder in a familiar way. _Ronan had waited for him. He wasn’t leaving him behind._ The trained thoughts circled through his mind and calmed him.

The two of them started to poke around the place and Venin suddenly tensed up and grabbed Ro by the arm, “Shh!”

Ronan turned to him and furrowed his brow, “I wasn’t even talk--”

“Shhh!!” Ven hissed, “Did you hear that?”

“Hear what? You shushing me?” Ro tipped his ear to the side in question. 

Venin clasped a hand over Ronan’s mouth and glared a very serious warning. 

Ronan grumbled and pushed at Ven’s arm, but immediately paused as he heard it. _Chittering._

A large rust colored shape suddenly appeared from under the catwalk and lunged at Venin, viciously hissing and clicking it’s jaws. 

Ronan jerked Ven back and away from the thing while he drew his belt knife in one graceful movement. As the roach lunged, Ro brought steel down just behind the thing’s head with a sick wet crunch. As it fell, twitching, he dropped down to one knee and stabbed it a few more times, just for good measure.

As the knife came back up, thick yellowish goo splattered across Ro’s face. 

Swallowing his disgust, Venin managed a quiet, “Thanks...” 

“What’re you scared of, it’s just one little bug...” Ronan gave a smirk before wiping off his face with his hand. He flicked the goo onto the wall with slight satisfaction.

“There’s never just one...” Venin said, as his eyes scanned the area for more.

Sure enough, soft clicks and scrapes started to slowly fill the room and echo through the space as shapes moved around from under the catwalk. 

“Well… Shit…” Ronan blinked stupidly.

Ven, weapon in hand, started to slowly back away. “I don’t think we have enough ammo for this…”

Ronan eyed the knife in his hand and shrugged as he boldly stood his ground. “Don’t matter.” A little grin crept up on his face, “I got this.”

 _More roaches._

“You do not _‘got this’._ What you _have_ is some sort of learning impediment.” Venin grabbed the sleeve of his companion's jacket and urgently tugged him back into the hallway leading deeper into the vault.

The things immediately turned their attention to the two bumbling fools that disturbed their home. Five. No, six... Seven. That was about seven too many. As their large flat bodies crowded in around the walkway, over walls and ceiling, Ven turned down the corridor and bolted, Ronan close at his heel. 

Ro reached out and clutched Ven by the collar of his jacket and jerked him through an open door off to the side then smashed buttons on the wall until the door closed. Chittering insects piled and crawled over the outside of the door, loudly scraping against it in frustration. 

Weapon trained carefully at the closed door, Venin grimaced as he backed away. 

“Screw going back out that way…” Ronan read his mind like a book full of large bold print. 

Ven turned through another open door in the back and led the way, more cautiously this time around. “There was another door out front, there has to be another way out.” Venin had a mind for these things. He could find his way through huge unfamiliar buildings like the place had been home for a hundred years. He could probably find his way through a maze blindfolded while Ronan, on the other hand, could get completely lost walking around the block… With a map and a guide.  
  


**\- - - - - - - - - - - -**

“What’s this room?” Ronan used a sleeve to wipe a thick layer of dust from a large machine’s glass.

“I’m not sure.” Venin started prodding around.

“Shit!” Ro wiped more dirt away, “Ven, there’s people in here!” He started running his hands around the outside of the thing, looking for some way to open it. He tugged hard on the hatch in several places.

Venin watched his companion for a moment before poking at a panel full of dusty buttons and dials. Suddenly, loud hissing spewed smoke from all the pods as the locks disengaged. 

Ronan fell backwards and landed hard on his rump as the door he was tugging swung open. Eyes fixed on the figure inside, Ro slowly got to his feet and scowled. “He was… Frozen. I think.” He stepped close and poked a finger against the man’s face.

“Stop that.” Ven approached and pushed Ronan aside to look at the man. “He’s gone back to Tellus.” He started prodding the body.

Ro moved to another pod, then another. “Tellus took them all...”

A sudden groan from a pod off to the side startled the boys. A small woman fell from a pod, landed on on her hands and knees and started gasping deep breaths of air.

Ronan took a hesitant step toward the woman, slowly raising his pistol as she looked up at him with large, panic-stricken turquoise eyes.  
  


****

### 

****


End file.
